A fairytale house on Dartmoor with a warm, sanctuary-like interior by Retrouvius
A house that is loved by children tends to have a special kind of charm. Perhaps it has a garden with grassy paths, a river and a treehouse, or a staircase with banisters you can slide down, or long corridors and attic rooms that invite games of hide-and-seek. Or maybe it has the scale and heft of a castle. This house has all these things and more, and its owner was utterly delighted when a visiting child shyly asked her, ‘Is this a school for witches?’
It was the garden and 20 acres of surrounding land that most appealed when she first saw the house four years ago, plus the fact that it has its own hydroelectricity system housed in an old thatched mill at one edge of the sloping gardens. ‘I was living in London but craving a bit of wildness,’ she says. ‘I love being on the edge of Dartmoor here, surrounded by fields and woodland. I have let the lawns grow and seeded them with wild meadow flowers.’ In late summer, the tall grass is bleached pale gold and there is a tapestry of cosmos, lupins, scabious, daisies and snapdragons bending in the breeze between the driveway, which opens from the lane, and the arch of the deep entrance porch.
The softness of the gardens is a foil to the weight of the house, its granite walls pierced by stone mullioned windows, its roof peaked with gables and dotted with high, square chimneys. It has elements of Tudor and Gothic style – the result of an early-20th-century makeover of a 17th-century building. Not only was the house aggrandised with the addition of attic rooms, a huge entrance hall and a first-floor chapel – all modesty thrown to the wind – the stables and barns were also developed, creating a group of buildings as picturesque as a period film set.
Push open the heavy, studded front door and the film-set feel intensifies as you enter a high staircase hall rising into the steep pitch of a beamed roof. Daylight drops from leaded windows onto a broad staircase with chunky carved oak banisters and vast oak finials. The floor is granite slabs, arched doorways are framed by granite and there is a granite fireplace, big enough to sit inside, beyond the foot of the stairs. It could be home to a prince in a fairy story, or the setting for an Agatha Christie mystery.
Continuing past the stairs to the kitchen, or turning left into one of the three sitting rooms, granite and oak dominate the interior architecture. ‘When I first moved in, I had little by way of furnishings and it felt a bit bleak,’ says the owner. Her sister thought that Maria Speake and Adam Hills of Retrouvius – those masters of design and architectural recycling – might be the right team to warm it up. It was an inspired suggestion.
‘It is an extraordinary house, with its own powerful character,’ says Maria. ‘My first instinct was simply to make it comfortable, particularly for guests.’ The owner had inherited several large beds. Working around them, Maria introduced colour, pattern and texture into the six first-floor bedrooms, mixing rugs and hand-blocked linens with antique fabrics. In one room, Chinese indigo panels are layered on top of plain linen curtains; in another, the bedspread is an old suzani. Bathrooms have wallpaper, vintage fittings and – where space allows – an armchair.
Downstairs, comfort comes in the shape of shaggy Gotland sheep fleeces draped over chairs, the benches at the kitchen table and the long stools against the wall in the hall. Stone floors are padded with rugs and jute matting. The same matting, in a vibrant green, makes a wide path up the oak stairs. ‘We wanted to bring in colour as well as warmth,’ explains Maria. ‘It felt a bit as though we were feathering a slightly prickly nest.’
Some pieces were bought with specific locations in mind, others more speculatively. The main drawing room, which leads off the staircase hall and retains its original 17th-century stone mullioned windows and fireplace, was almost entirely furnished with pieces from other rooms. ‘The sofa was originally on the landing, the oak settle in the music room and the armchair in a bedroom,’ says Maria. Curtains are hand-dyed vintage linen with an overlay of kuba cloth panels, window-seat cushions are covered in Turkish carpet, and the central ottoman is an old Eastern European leather gym mat mounted on a new base.
The room typifies the multicultural gathering of the new, the vintage and the antique that Maria is so good at – a mix that has soul, feels unforced and incremental, and is as relaxing to live with as it is difficult to pull off. ‘Adam finds amazing things and then Maria finds brilliant ways of using them. I immediately realised I could trust them,’ says the owner. ‘I would come home from being away to discover rooms transformed. They are like magicians.’ Items continue to arrive – old lamps with new shades, a vintage embroidered panel, a chair upholstered in Hungarian linen. But the house has become what the owner always dreamed it would be. ‘It’s a retreat,’ she says. ‘People come here for their creative projects – whether finishing a PhD, writing a memoir, or making music.’ And children come to play. And pretend to be witches.
Retrouvius: retrouvius.com
Martin Morrell1/9A West African mudcloth painting is displayed above the original stone fireplace. ‘Thala’ sofas from Caravane flank an elm coffee table from Ardingly Antiques Fair.
Martin Morrell2/9The stainless-steel island contrasts with the existing terracotta brick floor and oak cabinets.
Martin Morrell3/9Retrouvius created the curtains from vintage hand-dyed Hungarian linen sheets overlaid with African kuba cloth and the window-seat cushions from Turkish flatweave rugs and antique textiles. The sheepskin beanbag is from The Wool Company.
Martin Morrell4/9Walls in a Bauwerk aubergine lime paint showcase framed kuba cloth panels above an antique oak settle and refectory table illuminated by vintage brass and copper lanterns, all from Retrouvius. The ‘Mon Prince’ sofa is from Caravane.
Martin Morrell5/9The curtain in vintage Hungarian linen features a velvet band at the bottom, which was hand-dyed using green walnuts. The hessian-upholstered armchair, the table lamp with a mercury-glass base and African shade, and the Moroccan rug on the reclaimed oak marquetry flooring were all sourced by Retrouvius. The 16th-century Spanish bench is from Puckhaber.
Martin Morrell6/9Sheets of handmade wallpaper from Retrouvius are set off by panelling in ‘Lincoln Green’ from Papers and Paints.
Martin Morrell7/9Navajo rugs from Joshua Lumley complement the pale, limed floorboards. Original Delft tiles line the chimneypiece in the sitting room area.
Martin Morrell8/9Vintage textiles pick up on the colour of an antique Indian painting above the bed.
Martin Morrell9/9The lawn was allowed to grow and was seeded with wild meadow flowers, softening the appearance of the thick granite walls. The building’s style is Tudor with a hint of Gothic, and is the result of an early-20th-century makeover of a 17th-century house.
